Five Critical Significant Developments in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders issued from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Trump administration has been the primary force, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This covers access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five junctures that affected the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing widespread distress, a senior US official announces that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, predicting that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they applaud new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
